All astronauts who died in space. Accidents and emergencies on Russian Soyuz spacecraft

Incredible facts

In the recently released space thriller "Gravity", viewers have the opportunity to watch a terrifying situation when the astronauts played Sandra Bullock And George Clooney, carries far into space.

The disaster occurs due to the fact that space debris disables the space shuttle.

Although this situation is fictitious, the possibility of death and destruction is very real. Here are the biggest disasters that have occurred in the history of space flight.

1. Soyuz-1 and the death of cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov in 1967

First fatal accident in the history of space flights occurred in 1967 with a Soviet cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov, who was on board Soyuz 1, who died on landing when the spacecraft's descent module crashed into the ground.

According to various sources, the cause of the tragedy was parachute system failure. One can only guess what happened during the last minutes.

When it hit the ground, the on-board tape recorder melted, and the astronaut most likely died instantly from the incredible overloads. All that was left of the body were a few charred remains.

2. Soyuz-11: death in space

Another tragic ending to the Soviet space program occurred on June 30, 1971, when the cosmonauts Georgy Dobrovolsky, Vladislav Volkov And Victor Patsaev died returning to Earth from the Salyut-1 space station.

The investigation showed that during the descent of Soyuz 11, the ventilation valve, which usually opens before landing, operated early, causing asphyxia among the astronauts.

The pressure drop in the descent module exposed the crew exposure to outer space. The astronauts were without spacesuits, since the descent vehicle was not designed for three people.

Just 22 seconds after depressurization at an altitude of approximately 150 km, they began to lose consciousness, and after 42 seconds their heart stopped. They were found sitting in a chair, they had hemorrhaged, their eardrums were damaged, and the nitrogen in their blood clogged their blood vessels.

3. Challenger disaster

January 28, 1986 NASA space shuttle Challenger exploded live shortly after the start.

The launch attracted widespread attention as it sent a teacher into orbit for the first time. Christa McAuliffe, which hoped to deliver lessons from space, attracting an audience of millions of schoolchildren.

The disaster dealt a serious blow to the reputation of the United States, and everyone could see it.

An investigation revealed that cold temperatures on launch day caused problems with the O-ring, which destroyed the mount.

All seven crew members died as a result of the disaster, and the shuttle program was closed until 1988.

4. Columbia Disaster

17 years after the Challenger tragedy, the shuttle program suffered another loss when the space shuttle Columbia collapsed upon entry into the dense layers of the atmosphere February 1, 2003 towards the end of mission STS-107.

The investigation showed that the cause of death was foam debris that damaged the shuttle's thermal insulation coating, creating a hole with a diameter of about 20 cm.

Found shipwreck

All seven crew members could have escaped, but quickly lost consciousness and died, while the shuttle continued to fall apart.

5. Apollo Mission: Apollo 1 Fire

Although no astronauts died during the Apollo missions, two fatal accidents did occur during related activities. Three astronauts: Gus Grissom, Edward White And Roger Chaffee died during a ground test of the command module which occurred on January 27, 1967. During preparation, a fire broke out in the cabin, causing the astronauts to suffocate and their bodies to burn.

The investigation revealed several errors, including the use of pure oxygen in the cabin, highly flammable Velcro fasteners, and an inward-opening hatch that prevented the crew from quickly escaping.

Before the test, the three astronauts were nervous about their upcoming training and posed for photos in front of a model of the spacecraft.

The accident led to many changes and improvements to future missions that later led to the first lunar landing.

6. Apollo 13: "Houston, we have a problem."

The Apollo 13 mission vividly demonstrated the dangers that await humans in space.

The launch of the spacecraft took place on April 11, 1970 at 13:13. Occurred during the flight oxygen tank explosion, which damaged the service module, which disrupted plans to land on the Moon.

Damaged Apollo 13 service module

To return to Earth, the astronauts had to fly around the Moon, taking advantage of its gravity. During the explosion, the astronaut Jack Swigert over the radio he said the phrase: “Houston, we had a problem.” Subsequently, in the famous Hollywood film "Apollo 13" it was changed to the now famous quote: " Houston, we have a problem.".

7. Lightning strikes and taiga: Apollo 12 and Voskhod 2

There were some pretty interesting, though not catastrophic, things that happened in both the Soviet space program and NASA. In 1969, during the launch of Apollo 12, lightning struck the spaceship twice at the 36th and 52nd seconds after the start. Despite this, the mission was a success.

Voskhod 2 became famous due to the fact that in 1965, during its flight, the world's first spacewalk by an astronaut was performed.

But there was a minor incident during landing due to the delay caused by the additional orbit around the Earth. At the same time, the place of return to the atmosphere was shifted.

Alexey Leonov And Pavel Belyaev on board the ship landed in the remote taiga approximately 30 km from the city of Bereznyaki, Perm region. The astronauts spent two days in the taiga, after which they were discovered by rescuers.

September 11, 2013 upon the return of cosmonauts from the International Space Station (ISS) on the Soyuz TMA-08M spacecraft. Part of the way the astronauts “fly by touch.” In particular, the crew did not receive parameters about their altitude and only learned from the reports of the rescue service what altitude they were at.

May 27, 2009 The Soyuz TMA-15 spacecraft was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. On board the ship were Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko, European Space Agency astronaut Frank De Winne and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Robert Thirsk. During the flight, problems arose with temperature regulation inside the Soyuz TMA-15 manned spacecraft, which were eliminated using a thermal control system. The incident did not affect the well-being of the crew. On May 29, 2009, the spacecraft docked with the ISS.

August 14, 1997 During the landing of Soyuz TM-25 with the crew of EO-23 (Vasily Tsibliev and Alexander Lazutkin), the soft landing engines fired prematurely, at an altitude of 5.8 km. For this reason, the landing of the spacecraft was hard (landing speed was 7.5 m/s), but the astronauts were not injured.

January 14, 1994 After the undocking of Soyuz TM-17 with the crew of EO-14 (Vasily Tsibliev and Alexander Serebrov) during a flyby of the Mir complex, an off-design approach and collision of the ship with the station occurred. The emergency did not have serious consequences.

April 20, 1983 The Soyuz T-8 spacecraft launched from the 1st site of the Baikonur cosmodrome with cosmonauts Vladimir Titov, Gennady Strekalov and Alexander Serebrov on board. For the ship's commander, Titov, this was his first mission into orbit. The crew had to work for several months on board the Salyut-7 station and conduct a lot of research and experiments. However, failure awaited the astronauts. Due to the non-opening of the antenna of the Igla rendezvous and docking system on the ship, the crew was unable to dock the ship to the station, and on April 22, the Soyuz T-8 landed on Earth.

April 10, 1979 The Soyuz-33 spacecraft launched with a crew consisting of Nikolai Rukavishnikov and Bulgarian Georgiy Ivanov. While approaching the station, the ship's main engine failed. The cause of the accident was the gas generator feeding the turbopump unit. It exploded, damaging the backup engine. When the braking impulse was issued (April 12), the reserve engine operated with a lack of thrust, and the impulse was not fully issued. However, the SA landed safely, albeit with a significant flight distance.

October 9, 1977 The Soyuz-25 spacecraft was launched, piloted by cosmonauts Vladimir Kovalyonok and Valery Ryumin. The flight program included docking with the Salyut-6 spacecraft, which was launched into orbit on September 29, 1977. Due to an emergency situation, docking with the station was not possible the first time. The second attempt was also unsuccessful. And after the third attempt, the ship, having touched the station and pushed off by spring pushers, moved away 8-10 m and hovered. The fuel in the main system had completely run out, and it was no longer possible to move further away using the engines. There was a possibility of a collision between the ship and the station, but after several orbits they separated to a safe distance. The fuel for issuing the braking impulse was taken from the reserve tank for the first time. The true reason for the docking failure could not be established. Most likely, there was a defect in the Soyuz-25 docking port (the serviceability of the station's docking port is confirmed by subsequent dockings with the Soyuz spacecraft), but it burned up in the atmosphere.

October 15, 1976 During the flight of the Soyuz-23 spacecraft with a crew consisting of Vyacheslav Zudov and Valery Rozhdestvensky, an attempt was made to dock with the Salyut-5 DOS. Due to the off-design mode of operation of the rendezvous control system, the docking was canceled and a decision was made to return the cosmonauts to Earth early. On October 16, the ship's vehicle splashed down on the surface of Lake Tengiz, covered with pieces of ice at an ambient temperature of -20 degrees Celsius. Salt water got onto the contacts of the external connectors, some of which remained energized. This led to the formation of false circuits and the passage of the command to shoot the cover of the reserve parachute system container. The parachute came out of the compartment, got wet and capsized the ship. The exit hatch ended up in the water, and the astronauts almost died. They were rescued by the pilots of a search helicopter, who, in difficult weather conditions, were able to detect the aircraft and, hooking it with a cable, dragged it to the shore.

April 5, 1975 The Soyuz spacecraft (7K-T No. 39) was launched with cosmonauts Vasily Lazarev and Oleg Makarov on board. The flight program provided for docking with the satellite Salyut-4 and work on board for 30 days. However, due to an accident during the activation of the third stage of the rocket, the ship did not enter orbit. The Soyuz made a suborbital flight, landing on a mountain slope in a deserted region of Altai not far from the state border with China and Mongolia. On the morning of April 6, 1975, Lazarev and Makarov were evacuated from the landing site by helicopter.

June 30, 1971 During the return to Earth of the crew of the Soyuz 11 spacecraft, due to the premature opening of the respiratory ventilation valve, the descent module depressurized, which led to a sharp decrease in pressure in the crew module. As a result of the accident, all the astronauts on board died. The crew of the ship, launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, consisted of three people: ship commander Georgy Dobrovolsky, research engineer Viktor Patsayev and flight engineer Vladislav Volkov. During the flight, a new record was set at that time; the duration of the crew's stay in space was over 23 days.

April 19, 1971 The first orbital station "Salyut" was launched into orbit, and April 23, 1971 The Soyuz-10 spacecraft launched towards it with the first expedition consisting of Vladimir Shatalov, Alexey Eliseev and Nikolai Rukavishnikov. This expedition was supposed to work at the Salyut orbital station for 22-24 days. The Soyuz-10 TPK docked to the Salyut orbital station, but due to damage to the docking unit of the manned spacecraft during docking, the cosmonauts were unable to board the station and returned to Earth.

April 23, 1967 When returning to Earth, the parachute system of the Soyuz-1 spacecraft failed, resulting in the death of cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov. The flight program planned for the docking of the Soyuz-1 spacecraft with the Soyuz-2 spacecraft and the transition from ship to ship through outer space for Alexei Eliseev and Evgeniy Khrunov, but due to the non-opening of one of the solar panels on Soyuz-1, the launch " Soyuz-2" was cancelled. Soyuz-1 made an early landing, but at the final stage of the ship’s descent to Earth, the parachute system failed and the descent module crashed east of the city of Orsk, Orenburg Region, killing the cosmonaut.

The material was prepared based on information from RIA Novosti and open sources

On June 30, 1971, the first crew of the Salyut orbital space station in the history of astronautics, consisting of Georgy Dobrovolsky, Vladislav Volkov and Viktor Patsayev, died while returning to Earth. This tragic incident became the largest in the history of Russian cosmonautics - the entire crew died.

The Soviet and American space programs operated in conditions of extremely fierce competition. Each side strived at all costs to get ahead of the competitor and become the first. At first, the palm belonged to the USSR: the first launch of an artificial Earth satellite, the first launch of a man into space, the first man in outer space, the first flight of a female cosmonaut remained with the Soviet Union.

The Americans focused on the lunar race and won. Although the USSR had the theoretical opportunity to be the first, the program was too unreliable and the likelihood of disaster was too high, so the Soviet leadership did not dare to risk the lives of its cosmonauts. The Soviet lunar cosmonaut squad was transferred to training under the Docking program for the first flight to the orbital station.

Having safely landed on the Moon, the Americans proved to themselves that they too could do something, after which they became overly interested in the Earth’s satellite. The USSR at that time was already developing a project for a manned orbital station and won another victory in this area, launching its orbital station two years earlier than the United States did.

The Salyut station was planned to be launched into orbit by the beginning of the 24th Congress of the CPSU, but they were a little late. The station was launched into orbit only on April 19, 1971, ten days after the closing of the congress.

Almost immediately the first crew was sent to the orbital station. On April 24, five days after the station entered orbit, the Soyuz-10 spacecraft launched from Baikonur. On board were the ship's commander Vladimir Shatalov, flight engineer Alexey Eliseev and test engineer Nikolai Rukavishnikov.

This was a very experienced crew. Shatalov and Eliseev had already made two flights on Soyuz spacecraft; only Rukavishnikov was new to space. It was planned that Soyuz-10 would successfully dock with the orbital station, after which the cosmonauts would stay there for three weeks.

But everything didn't go as planned. The ship arrived safely at the station and began docking, but then problems began. The docking port pin engaged with the station, but the automation failed and the correction engines started working, causing the Soyuz to sway and the docking station to break.

There could no longer be any question of docking. Moreover, the entire Salyut station program was in jeopardy, since the cosmonauts did not know how to get rid of the docking pin. It could have been “shot”, but this would have made it impossible for any other ship to dock with the Salyut and would have meant the collapse of the entire program. Design engineers who were on Earth got involved and advised installing a jumper and using it to open the lock and remove the Soyuz pin. After several hours, this was finally done - and the astronauts went home.

Crew change

Preparations for the Soyuz-11 flight have begun. This crew was slightly less experienced than the previous one. None of the astronauts have been in space more than once. But the crew commander was Alexey Leonov, the first person to perform a spacewalk. In addition to him, the crew included flight engineer Valery Kubasov and engineer Pyotr Kolodin.

For several months they trained in docking both manually and automatically, because it was impossible to lose face for the second time in a row and return from the flight without docking.

At the beginning of June, the departure date was determined. At a meeting of the Politburo, the date was approved, as was the composition of the crew, which everyone unequivocally certified as the most skillful. But the unimaginable happened. Two days before the launch from Baikonur, sensational news came: during a standard pre-flight medical examination, doctors took Kubasov an X-ray and discovered a slight darkening in one of the lungs. Everything pointed to an acute tuberculosis process. True, it remained unclear how it could be viewed, because such a process does not develop in one day, and the astronauts underwent thorough and regular medical examinations. One way or another, Kubasov was not allowed to fly into space.

But both the State Commission and the Politburo have already approved the composition of the crew. What to do? After all, in the Soviet program, cosmonauts prepared for flights in groups of threes, and if one dropped out, then it was necessary to change the entire team, since it was believed that the threes had already worked together, and replacing one crew member would lead to a violation of consistency.

But, on the other hand, no one before in the history of astronautics has changed the crew less than two days before departure. How to choose the right solution in such a situation? There was a heated argument between the curators of the space program. Assistant to the Air Force Commander-in-Chief for Space Nikolai Kamanin insisted that Leonov’s crew was experienced and if you replace the retired Kubasov with Volkov, who also had experience in space flights, then nothing terrible would happen and the coordination of actions would not be disrupted.

However, designer Mishin, one of the developers of Salyut and Soyuz, advocated a complete change of the troika. He believed that the backup crew would be much better prepared and worked together than the main crew, but which had undergone a change in crew on the eve of the flight. In the end, Mishin’s point of view won. Leonov's crew was removed and replaced with a backup crew consisting of commander Georgy Dobrovolsky, flight engineer Vladislav Volkov and research engineer Viktor Patsaev. None of them had been in space, with the exception of Volkov, who had already flown on one of the Soyuz.

Leonov's crew took the removal from the flight very painfully. Boris Chertok later recalled the words of designer Mishin: “Oh, what a difficult conversation I had with Leonov and Kolodin!” he told us. “Leonov accused me of allegedly deliberately not wanting to replace Kubasov with Volynov in order to drag him into Volkov's space. Kolodin said that he felt this way until the last day that he would not be allowed into space under any pretext. Kolodin says: “I am a black sheep for them. They are all pilots, and I am a rocket scientist."

None of the angry cosmonauts could have imagined that an erroneous X-ray (Kubasov did not have any tuberculosis and later he successfully flew into space) saved their lives. But then the situation escalated to the limit. Chertok personally observed this picture: “At the State Commission, I found myself next to Kolodin. He sat with his head bowed low, nervously clenching and unclenching his fingers, nodules playing on his face. He was not the only one nervous. Both crews felt unwell. The first was shocked by the removal from the flight, the second - a sudden change in fate. After the flight, the second crew had to climb the marble stairs of the Kremlin Palace to fanfare, Glinka’s music, and receive the stars of the heroes. But there was no joy on their faces.

The Soyuz-11 spacecraft launched from Baikonur on June 6, 1971. The astronauts were worried not only because two of them had never been in space before, but also because of the magnificent farewell: the day before departure, the mourners staged a real rally at which they gave speeches.

Nevertheless, the launch of the ship took place as usual and without any failures. The astronauts successfully and without problems docked with the orbital station. It was an exciting moment, because they were to become the first earthlings on board the space station.

The cosmonauts were safely accommodated in the orbital station, which, although small, seemed huge to them after the incredibly cramped Soyuz. The first week they got used to the new environment. Among other things, the cosmonauts on the Salyut had a television connection with the Earth.

On June 16, an emergency occurred at the station. The astronauts smelled a strong burning smell. Volkov contacted Earth and reported the fire. The issue of urgent evacuation from the station was being considered, but Dobrovolsky decided to take his time and turn off some devices, after which the burning smell went away.

In total, the astronauts spent 23 days in orbit. They had a fairly rich program of research and experiments. In addition, they had to mothball the station for the next crews.

Catastrophe

In general, the flight went well - no one expected any emergencies. The crew made contact and conducted an orientation. As it turned out, this was the last communication session with the crew. As expected, at 1:35 the braking propulsion system was activated. At 1:47, the descent module separated from the instrument and service compartments. At 1:49 the crew was supposed to get in touch and report the successful separation of the descent module. The descent vehicle did not have a telemetry system and no one on Earth knew what was happening to the astronauts. It was planned that immediately after the separation Dobrovolsky would get in touch. The silence on the radio greatly surprised the experts, because the crew was very talkative and sometimes spoke to the Earth much more than the situation required.

The return to Earth took place as planned, without incidents, so at first there was no reason to believe that anything had happened to the crew. The most likely version was a malfunction of the radio equipment.

At 1:54 a.m., air defense systems detected the descent module. At an altitude of 7 thousand meters, the main parachute of the descent vehicle, which was equipped with an antenna, opened. The astronauts were required to contact either HF or VHF channels and report the situation. But they were silent, not responding to requests from Earth. This was already alarming; none of the safely returned Soyuz had problems with communication at this stage.

At about 2:05, the helicopters meeting the descent vehicle discovered it and reported it to the Mission Control Center. Ten minutes later the device landed safely. Externally, the device did not have any damage, but the crew still did not make contact and showed no signs of life. It was already clear that some kind of emergency had occurred, but there was still hope that the astronauts might have lost consciousness, but were still alive.

Immediately after landing, a meeting helicopter landed next to the device, and two minutes later the rescuers were already opening the hatch of the device. Chertok recalled: “The descent vehicle was lying on its side. There was no external damage. They knocked on the wall - no one responded. They quickly opened the hatch. All three were sitting in chairs in calm poses. There were blue spots on their faces. Streaks of blood from the nose and ears. They pulled out them from the SA. Dobrovolsky was still warm. Doctors continue artificial respiration."

Attempts by doctors to resuscitate the crew through artificial respiration and cardiac massage were unsuccessful. An autopsy showed that the crew died from decompression sickness caused by a sharp drop in pressure in the descent module.

Investigation

The circumstances of the death clearly indicated that the ship was depressurized. The very next day, studies of the descent module began, but all attempts to detect a leak failed. Kamanin recalled: “They closed the hatch and all other standard openings in the ship’s hull, created a pressure in the cabin that exceeded atmospheric pressure by 100 millimeters, and... did not find the slightest sign of leakage. They increased the excess pressure to 150, and then to 200 millimeters. Withstood the ship under such pressure for an hour and a half, we were finally convinced that the cabin was completely sealed."

But, if the device was completely sealed, then how could depressurization occur? There was only one option left. The leak may have occurred through one of the vent valves. But this valve opened only after the parachute opened to equalize the pressure, how could it open during the separation of the descent module?

The only theoretical option: the shock wave and explosions of the squibs during separation of the descent vehicle forced the valve opening squib to fire prematurely. But the Soyuz never had such problems (and in general there was not a single case of depressurization on both manned and unmanned ships). Moreover, after the disaster, experiments simulating this situation were carried out many times, but the valve never opened abnormally due to a shock wave or the detonation of squibs. No experiment has ever reproduced this situation. But, since there were no other explanations, this version was accepted as the official one. It was stipulated that this event was classified as extremely unlikely, since it could not be reproduced under experimental conditions.

The commission was able to approximately reconstruct the events that took place inside the descent module. After the normal separation of the apparatus, the cosmonauts discovered depressurization, as the pressure was rapidly dropping. They had less than a minute to find and eliminate her. Crew commander Dobrovolsky checks the hatch, but it is sealed. Trying to detect a leak by sound, the astronauts turn off radio transmitters and equipment. Most likely, they managed to detect the leak, but were no longer strong enough to close the valve. The drop in pressure was too strong, and within a minute the astronauts lost consciousness, and after about two minutes they were dead.

Everything would have been different if the crew had spacesuits. But the Soviet cosmonauts returned in the descent module without them. Both Korolev and Mishin opposed this. The suits were very bulky, as was the life support equipment they required, and the ships were already too cramped. Therefore, we had to choose: either an additional crew member, or spacesuits, or a radical reconstruction of the ship and the descent module.

The dead cosmonauts were buried in the Kremlin wall. At that time, it was the largest disaster in space in terms of the number of victims. For the first time, the entire crew died. The tragedy of Soyuz-11 led to the fact that flights under this program were frozen for more than two years.

During this time, the program itself was radically revised. Since then, astronauts have been required to return back wearing protective suits. In order to gain more space in the lander, it was decided to abandon the third crew member. The layout of the controls was changed so that the astronaut could reach all the most important buttons and levers without getting up.

After modifications were made, the Soyuz program established itself as one of the most reliable and is still operating successfully.

Over the relatively short history of astronautics, crashes and accidents of spacecraft have occurred both in orbit and not far from the Earth. There have been depressurizations and even collisions in space.

Juno. 50/50

Every second attempt by the Americans to launch a launch vehicle from the Juno series ended in failure. So, on July 16, 1959, Juno-2 was supposed to deliver the Explorer C-1 satellite into low-Earth orbit. Juno's mission lasted a few seconds: after launch, it almost immediately turned 180 degrees and began moving in the opposite direction, moving exactly towards the launch pad. The missile was detonated in the air, thereby preventing numerous casualties. To be fair, we note: with the help of Juno-1, the Americans managed to launch their first artificial Earth satellite.

Black date

June 30 is a “black” date in the history of space exploration. On this day in 1971, the Soyuz 11 crew returned to earth right on time after 23 days of work in space. In the ship's cabin, which slowly descended by parachute and landed on the ground, the bodies of the ship's commander Georgy Dobrovolsky, flight engineer Vladislav Volkov and test engineer Viktor Patsaev were found.

According to eyewitnesses, the bodies of the crew members were still warm, but attempts by doctors to resuscitate the astronauts were unsuccessful. It was later established that the tragedy occurred as a result of depressurization of the cabin. The pressure drop at an altitude of 168 kilometers in the absence of special spacesuits not provided for by the ship's design doomed the crew to a terrible death. Only such a tragedy forced us to radically reconsider the approach to ensuring the safety of Soviet cosmonauts during flight.

The crash of the "Opsnik"

Reporters from major media outlets were invited to the launch pad on December 6. They had to record the “achievements” and report them to the public, which was in a dejected state after the victories of the Land of Soviets. After the start, the Avangard gained a height of just over a meter and... fell to the ground. A powerful explosion destroyed the rocket and seriously damaged the launch pad. The next day, the front pages of the newspapers were full of headlines about the collapse of the “oopsnik” - that’s how journalists nicknamed “Vanguard”. Naturally, the demonstration of failure only increased panic in society.

Satellite collision

The first collision of artificial satellites - the Russian Cosmos-2251 and the American Iridium-33 - occurred on February 10, 2009. As a result of the complete destruction of both satellites, about 600 pieces of debris began to pose a threat to other devices operating in space, in particular, to the ISS. Fortunately, a new tragedy was avoided - in 2012, a maneuver by the Russian Zvezda module helped the ISS avoid the wreckage of Iridium-33.

No casualties

One can, perhaps, talk cynically about the “spectacle” of an explosion only in cases where human casualties are not involved. One “successful” example would be the attempt to launch a Delta 2 rocket with a military GPS satellite at Cape Canaveral.

The launch planned for January 16, 1997 had to be postponed for a day, and, despite the fact that the weather conditions did not improve on the 17th, the rocket was still launched. It stayed in the air for only 13 seconds before exploding. Fiery sparks, reminiscent of fireworks, rained down on the surrounding area for some time. Fortunately, no casualties were avoided. Most of the rocket fragments fell into the ocean, others damaged the launch control center bunker and about 20 cars in the parking lot.

The Titan tragedy

The question of which country has suffered large financial losses throughout the history of space exploration remains open today. The fact is that 1986 became a “black” year for NASA. The whole world had not yet recovered from the tragic death of the crew of the Challenger shuttle, which occurred on January 28, when the Titan 34D-9 rocket exploded during launch on April 18.

Its mission was to be part of a multi-billion dollar program to create a network of reconnaissance satellites. Additional funding was also required to eliminate the accident due to the spread of toxic self-igniting fuel components. Well, Russia lost about $90 million just last year due to the unsuccessful July launch of the Proton-M rocket at the Baikonur Cosmodrome.

A disaster on a Brazilian scale

The launch of the VLS-3 rocket could occupy leading positions in three ratings at once: “The largest number of victims”, “Unjustified hopes” and “Mysterious reasons”. Scheduled for August 25, 2003, it could make Brazil the number one space power in Latin America.

However, on August 22, during the final testing stage, one of the engines switched on inadvertently, which led to a fire and explosion of the fuel tanks. The disaster not only destroyed the rocket and the enormous launch complex, but also claimed the lives of 21 people, almost completely paralyzing the country's space program. As a result of a full-scale investigation, the exact causes of the explosion could not be established. According to the official version, the tragedy occurred due to “a dangerous concentration of volatile gases, damaged sensors and electromagnetic interference.”

Space is an airless space, the temperature in which is up to -270°C. A person cannot survive in such an aggressive environment, so astronauts always risk their lives, rushing into the unknown blackness of the Universe. In the process of space exploration, many disasters occurred that claimed dozens of lives. One of these tragic milestones in the history of astronautics was the death of the Challenger shuttle, which resulted in the death of all crew members.

Briefly about the ship

In the United States, NASA launched the billion-dollar Space Transportation System program. Within its framework, in 1971, the construction of reusable spacecraft began - space shuttles (in English Space Shuttle, which literally translates as “space shuttle”). It was planned that these shuttles would, like shuttles, shuttle between the Earth and orbit, rising to an altitude of up to 500 km. They were supposed to be useful for delivering payloads to orbital stations, performing the necessary installation and construction work, and conducting scientific research.

One of these ships was the Challenger shuttle, the second space shuttle built under this program. In July 1982, it was transferred to NASA for operation.

It got its name in honor of a sea vessel that explored the ocean in the 1870s. In NASA reference books it was listed as OV-99.

Flight history

The space shuttle Challenger first flew into space in April 1983 to launch a broadcast satellite. In June of the same year, it launched again to launch two communications satellites into orbit and conduct pharmaceutical experiments. One of the crew members was Sally Kristen Ride.

August 1983 - the third shuttle launch and the first at night in the history of American astronautics. As a result, the Insat-1B telecommunications satellite was launched into orbit and the Canadian manipulator Canadarm was tested. The flight duration was a little over 6 days.

In February 1984, the space shuttle Challenger took off again, but the mission to put two more satellites into orbit failed.

The fifth launch took place in April 1984. Then, for the first time in world history, a satellite was repaired in space. In October 1984, the sixth launch took place, which was marked by the presence of two female astronauts on board the spacecraft. During this significant flight, the first spacewalk by a woman, Katherine Sullivan, was made in the history of American astronautics.

The seventh flight in April 1985, the eighth in July and the ninth flight in October this year were also successful. They were united by a common goal - conducting research in a space laboratory.

In total, the Challenger has 9 successful flights, it spent 69 days in space, made a complete orbit around the blue planet 987 times, its “mileage” is 41.5 million kilometers.

Challenger shuttle disaster

The tragedy occurred off the coast of Florida on January 28, 1986 at 11:39 a.m. At this time, the Challenger shuttle exploded over the Atlantic Ocean. It collapsed in the 73rd second of flight at an altitude of 14 km from the ground. All 7 crew members were killed.

During the launch, the sealing ring of the right solid fuel accelerator was damaged. This caused a hole to burn in the side of the accelerator, from which a jet stream flew towards the external fuel tank. The jet destroyed the tail mount and the supporting structures of the tank itself. Elements of the ship shifted, breaking the symmetry of thrust and air resistance. The spacecraft deviated from the specified flight axis and, as a result, was destroyed under the influence of aerodynamic overloads.

The space shuttle Challenger was not equipped with an evacuation system, so the crew members had no chance of survival. But even if there was such a system, the astronauts would fall into the ocean at a speed of more than 300 km/h. The force of the impact on the water would have been such that no one would have survived anyway.

The Last Crew

During the 10th launch, the Challenger shuttle had seven people on board:

• Francis Richard "Dick" Scobee - 46 years old, crew chief. American military pilot with the rank of lieutenant colonel, NASA astronaut. He is survived by his wife, daughter and son. Posthumously awarded the medal "For Space Flight".
• Michael John Smith - 40 years old, co-pilot. Test pilot with the rank of captain, NASA astronaut. He is survived by his wife and three children. Posthumously awarded the medal "For Space Flight".
• Allison Shoji Onizuka - 39 years old, scientific specialist. American NASA astronaut of Japanese descent, test pilot with the rank of lieutenant colonel. He was posthumously awarded the rank of colonel.
• Judith Arlen Resnik - 36 years old, scientific specialist. One of NASA's best engineers and astronauts. Professional pilot.
• Ronald Ervin McNair - 35 years old, scientific specialist. Physicist, NASA astronaut. He left his wife and two children on Earth. He was posthumously awarded the medal "For Space Flight".
• Gregory Bruce Jarvis - 41 years old, payload specialist. An engineer by training. US Air Force Captain. NASA astronaut since 1984. He left his wife and three children at home. He was posthumously awarded the medal "For Space Flight".
• Sharon Christa Corrigan McAuliffe - 37 years old, payload specialist. Civil. Posthumously awarded the Space Medal - for astronauts.

There's a little more to be said about the final crew member, Christa McAuliffe. How could a civilian get on the Challenger space shuttle? It seems incredible.

Christa McAuliffe

She was born on 09/02/1948 in Boston, Massachusetts. She worked as a teacher of English, history and biology. She was married and had two children.

Her life flowed as usual and measuredly, until in 1984 the “Teacher in Space” competition was announced in the USA. His idea was to prove that every young and healthy person, after adequate preparation, could successfully fly into space and return to Earth. Among the 11 thousand applications submitted was the application of Krista, a cheerful, cheerful and energetic teacher from Boston.

She won the competition. When Vice President J. presented her with the winner's ticket at a ceremony in the White House, she burst into tears of happiness. It was a one way ticket.

After three months of training, experts declared Krista ready to fly. She was tasked with filming educational scenes and teaching several lessons from aboard the shuttle.

Pre-flight problems

Initially, in the process of preparing the tenth launch of the space shuttle, there were many problems:

• Initially, the launch was planned to take place on January 22 from the Kennedy Space Center. But due to organizational troubles, the start was moved first to January 23 and then to January 24.
• Due to a storm warning and low temperatures, the flight was postponed another day.
• Again, due to a bad weather forecast, the start was postponed to January 27.
• During the next inspection of the equipment, several problems were identified, so it was decided to set a new flight date - January 28.

On the morning of January 28, it was frosty outside, the temperature dropped to -1°C. This caused concern among the engineers, and in a private conversation they warned NASA management that extreme conditions could adversely affect the condition of the O-rings and recommended that the launch date be postponed again. But these recommendations were rejected. Another difficulty arose: the launch site became icy. This was an insurmountable obstacle, but, “fortunately,” by 10 a.m. the ice began to melt. The start was scheduled for 11:40 am. It was broadcast on national television. All of America watched the events at the cosmodrome.

Launch and crash of the space shuttle Challenger

At 11:38 a.m. the engines started working. After 2 minutes the device started. Seven seconds later, gray smoke emerged from the base of the right booster, as recorded by ground footage of the flight. The reason for this was the impact of the shock load during engine startup. This has happened before, and the main O-ring, which ensured reliable insulation of the systems, was triggered. But it was cold that morning, so the frozen ring lost its elasticity and could not work as expected. This was the cause of the disaster.

At 58 seconds into the flight, the Challenger shuttle, a photo of which is in the article, began to collapse. After 6 seconds, liquid hydrogen began to flow out of the external tank; after another 2 seconds, the pressure in the external fuel tank dropped to a critical level.

At 73 seconds of flight, the liquid oxygen tank collapsed. Oxygen and hydrogen detonated, and the Challenger disappeared in a huge fireball.

Search for the remains of the ship and the bodies of the dead

After the explosion, debris from the shuttle fell into the Atlantic Ocean. The search for the wreckage of the spacecraft and the bodies of the dead astronauts began with the support of military personnel from the Coast Guard. On March 7, a shuttle cabin with the bodies of crew members was found at the bottom of the ocean. Due to prolonged exposure to seawater, an autopsy was unable to determine the exact cause of death. However, it was possible to find out that after the explosion the astronauts remained alive, since their cabin was simply torn off from the tail section. Michael Smith, Allison Onizuka and Judith Resnick remained conscious and turned on their personal air supply. Most likely, the astronauts could not survive the gigantic force of the impact on the water.

Investigation into the causes of the tragedy

NASA's internal investigation into all the circumstances of the disaster was conducted under the strictest secrecy. To understand all the details of the case and find out the reasons why the Challenger shuttle crashed, US President Reagan created a special Rogers Commission (named after Chairman William Pierce Rogers). Its members included prominent scientists, space and aviation engineers, astronauts and military personnel.

A few months later, the Rogers Commission provided the President with a report in which all the circumstances that resulted in the Challenger shuttle disaster were made public. It was also stated that NASA management did not adequately respond to warnings from specialists regarding problems with the safety of the planned flight.

Consequences of the crash

The crash of the Challenger shuttle dealt a severe blow to the reputation of the United States; the Space Transportation System program was curtailed for 3 years. Due to the largest space shuttle disaster at that time, the United States suffered losses ($8 billion).

Significant changes were made to the design of the shuttles, significantly increasing their safety.

The structure of NASA was also reorganized. An independent agency to oversee flight safety has been created.

Display in culture

In May 2013, the film “Challenger” directed by J. Hawes was released. In the UK it was named best drama film of the year. Its plot is based on real events and concerns the activities of the Rogers Commission.